Corporate
strategy
Managing the legacy
Making the most of the assets
Foreword
This is our first strategy as a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA). It sets our direction and
intent as a business and is supported by
a management framework that we use to
balance Sellafield’s portfolio.
Our three strategic themes are: Safe and
Secure Site Stewardship, Demonstrable
Progress and Return on Investment. This
strategy is part of a suite of documents
which together describe the short to
medium term direction of travel for the
business and the transformation that we
need to undertake to be successful.
Corporate
strategy
Managing the legacy
Making the most of the assets
Sellafield site
Sellafield
Seascale
Cumbria CA20 1PG
www.sellafieldsites.com
Government policy and NDA strategy define
our mission, which we deliver within the
framework of our site licence obligations.
Transforming
Sellafield
Corporate
Plan
2016/17- 2036
We deliver the outcomes defined by NDA in
the NDA Specification for Sellafield, through
the effective and efficient deployment of
our resources.
We are responsible for nuclear safety,
security and protecting the environment, and
this will always inform our decision-making.
Our mission is to remediate the
Sellafield site to an agreed end state
and other requirements as set out by
Her Majesty’s Government.
Contents
2
2
Foreword
3
Introduction
4
History of Sellafield
6
Sellafield today
7
Why do we need to change?
8
Our response to the challenge
10
The company we wish to be
11
Strategic themes
12
In pursuit of our mission
14
What does the customer view as value?
16
How we lead change
18
Future options
Corporate Strategy 2017
We have established the detail of how we will
achieve our mission through our Corporate,
Operating and Transformation Plans. In these
plans, we establish a set of milestones and
targets that enable us to measure how we
deliver the mission, improve how we operate
and manage transitions.
Introduction
Sellafield has led the development of the UK’s nuclear industry, from the
production of plutonium for the country’s nuclear deterrent programme
through to the development of nuclear power generation. Today we are faced
with the challenge of cleaning up the legacy of the site’s early operations,
including some of the most hazardous nuclear facilities in Europe.
Covering six square kilometres, the site is
home to more than 200 nuclear facilities
and the largest inventory of untreated
nuclear waste in the world. We employ
approximately 11,000 people who, along
with our supply chain partners, are tackling
Sellafield’s current diverse portfolio of
decommissioning, reprocessing, spent fuel
management, nuclear waste management
and nuclear material management.
As a company we are also facing
challenges; preparing for the end of
reprocessing and delivering our mission
as efficiently as possible while providing
value for money for the public funding we
receive. This strategy document sets out
the organisation that we need to become,
our drivers for change and the potential
for our supply chain to access a growing
global nuclear decommissioning market
by exporting the technology and solutions
that they are developing for us at Sellafield.
It is supported by a framework of
detailed technical strategies and a
Transformation Plan.
Vision
Mission
A world leader in
solving complex
nuclear challenges
Safely and securely
remediate the Sellafield
site to benefit the
industry, nation
and region
Corporate Strategy 2017
3
History of Sellafield
Sellafield has been nearly 80 years in the making. A pioneer for the UK’s nuclear
industry, it supported national defence, generated electricity for nearly half a
century, and developed the ability to safely manage nuclear waste.
Each chapter of Sellafield’s history delivered great benefit for the country while
creating a complex nuclear clean-up challenge for which there are no blueprints.
Decommissioning the site will take us more than 100 years and there is much
still that we don’t know. Every day we are building greater certainty and we will
be the generation that makes demonstrable progress in cleaning up Sellafield.
Munitions:
At Sellafield, TNT was made
and munitions shells filled.
Nuclear deterrent:
The remote nature of the site,
along with its industrial workforce
and experience in working for the
Ministry of Supply, makes it the
ideal location to produce plutonium
for the country’s atomic weapons
programme.
Legacy:
Corporate Strategy 2017
1970s
1960s
Reactor construction
and operation:
Commercial
reprocessing:
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy
Authority is formed. The world’s first
commercial nuclear power station,
Calder Hall, and the Windscale
Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor are
developed – both are forerunners
of a fleet of nuclear power stations
across the country.
Plans are developed to
commercialise reprocessing at
Sellafield. The site also comes under
the ownership of British Nuclear
Fuels Ltd. The United Kingdom
Atomic Energy Authority retains
ownership of the Windscale site.
Legacy:
Redundant munitions
structures and
facilities buried
underneath the site.
4
1950s
1940s
That will be our legacy.
Legacy:
First generation
reactors requiring
decommissioning.
High level nuclear waste
requiring treatment, storage
and, in the case of foreign
owned waste, shipment
back to the country of origin.
Multiple missions:
Construction commences on a
new facility called the Thermal
Oxide Reprocessing Plant
(Thorp). The site is now the only
nuclear site in the country that
can safely manage all three
forms of radioactive waste: low,
intermediate and high.
Thorp and Magnox are established
as key international players in the
fuel cycle, and reprocessing helps
meet the requirements of domestic
power generation and overseas
customers. First generation reactor
decommissioning gets underway, and
preparation for wider decommissioning
activities starts. Ownership of the site
moves to the newly-created Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority. Sellafield
Ltd becomes the nuclear site licensee.
Legacy:
Legacy:
Pilot plants, Thorp
and Magnox
reprocessing
facilities requiring
decommissioning.
2010s
2000s
1990s
1980s
Waste management:
Risk and hazard
reduction:
Access to the waste and fuel stored
in our sixty-year-old fuels storage
ponds and waste silos starts,
retrieving it and moving it to modern
storage. In 2016 Sellafield Ltd
becomes a subsidiary of the NDA.
Legacy:
Aged pond and silo
facilities remain with no
waste removal capability.
Investment in the assets
is required to enable
decommissioning.
Pond and silo waste
storage facilities with
large inventories,
which do not meet
modern standards.
Corporate Strategy 2017
5
Sellafield today
Supporting the UK’s strategic defence and power generation requirements for the past
seven decades has created a hazardous clean-up challenge for which there is no blueprint,
and a site that is heavily congested. But, in meeting this challenge, our scientists, engineers,
operators and suppliers are developing ground-breaking solutions and techniques, making
Sellafield a test-bed of nuclear innovation.
The production of plutonium for
the country’s nuclear deterrent,
harnessing the power of the atom in
order to generate low carbon electricity,
and recycling spent nuclear fuel in
order to capture nuclear materials for
reuse, are activities that were central
to the UK’s nuclear evolution with
Sellafield at its heart.
The country benefited from the site’s
activities in terms of national defence and
electricity generation, but today Sellafield
is home to a hazardous nuclear legacy
that needs to be addressed.
Cleaning up the site’s legacy fuel
storage ponds and nuclear waste
silos relies on the effective reuse of
existing buildings or the construction
of new waste facilities. This work is
turning Sellafield into one of the largest
construction sites in the country,
second only to the Crossrail project.
OUR ASSETS:
Our workforce
Our knowledge, skills
and experience
Sellafield’s nuclear
facilities
6
Corporate Strategy 2017
This construction is taking
place cheek by jowl with
decommissioning, demolition,
nuclear waste management, nuclear
material management and the
wide-ranging services that keep the
site running 24/7. All in a site that
covers only 6 square kilometres. By
comparison, the Hanford nuclear
site in the US is home to fewer
facilities and a smaller nuclear
inventory, but covers a footprint
160 times larger than Sellafield.
Our new facilities will receive, treat
and safely store various forms of
nuclear waste until a permanent
disposal facility is available. Getting
the waste out of our legacy ponds
WE ARE
MANAGING THE
highest
hazard
facility
IN EUROPE
and silos – buildings that are as
old as the UK’s nuclear industry
– is a challenge for which there is
no blueprint. This uncertainty has
created a culture of innovation as our
teams and suppliers design, develop
and implement new solutions and
re-purpose innovations from beyond
the nuclear industry in order to clean
up Sellafield. Our suppliers are also
exporting the technology that they
have created or adapted for Sellafield
to other UK and international nuclear
clean-up sites.
The capabilities, experience and skills
of our workforce and supply chain,
along with the nuclear buildings at
Sellafield that we operate on behalf of
the NDA as site owners, are assets
that we will bring to bear in order to
deliver our mission and exceed the
expectations of our customers.
200
WE OPERATE MORE THAN
200 BUILDINGS WITH A
SIGNIFICANT NUCLEAR
INVENTORY
Why do we need to change?
We are managing a period of unprecedented change and we will go through a number of
transitions which will change our future shape and size. We need to be flexible, agile and
responsive with an organisational culture that supports change.
We were established as a subsidiary
of the NDA in April 2016 with
the express intent to increase
effectiveness and efficiency in line
with Government expectations. This
strategy sets out how we intend to
realise these benefits.
We expect there to be continued
pressures on public funding that
require us to be agile and respond
to in-year fluctuations. We must be
organised to prioritise and
flex accordingly.
2020 will see our completion of
reprocessing operations and
the shift of focus to high hazard
retrievals, risk reduction and broader
decommissioning activities. The end
of reprocessing will result in surplus
roles and will require a shift in
core skills.
To optimise the response to
mission change, performance
gaps and economic and funding
uncertainty, we need to change.
A transformation programme has
been established to drive high
priority changes at Sellafield.
As well as responding to operational
change drivers, we believe we
can transform performance and
prospects for our organisation,
partners, stakeholders and
communities. Transforming Sellafield
will require changes in culture and
behaviours, enhancing collaboration,
greater innovation and enterprise
solutions. Our transformation
agenda will deliver those changes
and create the characteristics of a
high-performing organisation.
Innovative
Agile
Effective
and
efficient
Collaborative
Mission
change
Corporate Strategy 2017
7
Our response to the challenge
We will commit to a transformation programme, that will focus
on key activities to make us more effective and efficient. The
outcomes we will focus on are:
Delivering a transformation that
accelerates the high hazard
mission.
– Bulk retrievals from legacy
ponds and silos will be
completed (against the
Baseline Plan) 25 per cent
sooner, completing this hazard
reduction phase earlier.
Creating an agile organisation
able to make high-quality
decisions and deploy resources,
flexible enough to take
advantage of opportunities and
respond to threats.
– Our organisation will be able
to flex + / - £100 million in any
financial year by 2020.
Developing a culture that is
characterised by people who:
– focus on delivering value
– empower others
– hold each other to account
– work collaboratively
– take ownership of and pride in
their work.
Facilitating a long-term positive
impact on the UK and regional
economies.
– We will help ensure a resilient
and engaged supply chain is
in place to support our mission
at Sellafield, delivering added
value while lessening reliance
on our organisation.
Reducing costs by £1.4 billion
(against the Baseline Plan) by
2020 and a further £1-1.4 billion
by 2029.
As a consequence of our
changing mission at Sellafield,
our increased effectiveness,
efficiency and flexibility, it is
expected that our organisation
will be smaller.
In delivering our mission and meeting
the transformation outcomes, we
will provide options for additional
value creation from our assets: the
capabilities, experience and skills of
our workforce and supply chain, and
the nuclear buildings at Sellafield that
we operate on behalf of the NDA.
We will be sustainable, balancing the
needs of today’s operations with those
of tomorrow especially in terms of the
environment. In reducing the hazards
and risks from legacy operations,
we will consider future requirements
and ensure that we do not
unconsciously close the door
on potential opportunities.
As we transition as an organisation, we
will retrain and reskill our workforce to
enable redeployment on missions to
progress environmental remediation,
either on the Sellafield site or as part of
the wider enterprise.
Our collaboration with the supply chain
will deliver the mission and create
opportunities in terms of innovation,
technology advancement and,
potentially, UK growth.
We will recognise Sellafield Ltd as an
anchor organisation contributing to the
industrial landscape of the UK.
There are four key drivers for change:
Mission change
In 2020, we will see a
major shift in our work
scope as reprocessing
operations come to an
end. This is a reduction
in scope of approximately
a quarter and therefore
the organisation will
reflect the change and be
appropriately sized.
8
Corporate Strategy 2017
Performance gap Potential economic Changing
changes
nuclear horizon
We have implemented a
new management model
and will continue to
strengthen stakeholder
confidence by demonstrating
improved value for money,
consistent delivery and
efficiency across our
operations, projects, safety
and security.
We will be more agile and
flexible, allowing us to
respond to any future
funding adjustments.
We will be proactive
in responding to new
opportunities such as
those created by new
nuclear build and those
within the emerging
Industrial Strategy.
REDUCING COSTS BY
£1.4
billion
BY 2020
Our collaboration with the supply
chain will deliver the mission and
also create opportunities in terms of
innovation, technology advancement
and, potentially, UK growth.
Corporate Strategy 2017
9
The company we wish to be
We have a clear picture of the organisation
we will become. By the mid 2020s, we will
have developed the characteristics of a highperformance culture and will be working as a
single extended enterprise. This will give us an
environment in which:
• Safety, security and value are delivered through an
integrated approach to performance, productivity
and prospects
• Fit-for-purpose technology enables informed, highquality decision-making and safe, efficient, value-led
delivery
• Organisational structure and processes support new
ways of working and resourcing
• Organisational culture values people and recognises
talent, collaboration, and high-performance
behaviours and communications, driven by effective
performance management.
Performance
Technology
How we manage the business, make
decisions, measure and govern work
Information and data, and how
we will innovate
• Value streams used to set and measure the performance
of the business
• Single source of management information that supports
decision-making
• Decisions made on accurate and consistent data and
understanding of what is important
• Fewer, more ‘joined-up’ IT systems that support improved
performance across the business
• Clear view of personal contribution, how to get things done,
and where to get help when needed and support for ideas
• Ability to model and analyse business information to offer
options in decision-making
• A suite of measures to monitor performance consistently
across the business and supply chain
• Continual search for innovative ways to accelerate the
mission and reduce costs
• Clear financial information that supports decision-making
• Simplified and appropriate governance structures,
processes and procedures
• Process and assurance that are fit for purpose, based
on levels of risk
Structure
People
How we set up the organisation
structurally and physically
What we will expect from
our people
• Sellafield Ltd and supply chain skills, experience and
capability used to deliver the mission in the most effective way
• Improved capability to get the best out of our relationships
with the supply chain
• Appropriate structure for operating in value streams
• A culture centred on driving performance
• Prioritised, essential use of land within the site boundary
• Leaders developing people, and holding them to account,
to deliver stretching performance
• A range of types of contract and suppliers in place as needed
to support the mission
• Proactive reskilling and redeploying of our people to meet
business needs
• Funding allocation and authority given to value streams
10 Corporate Strategy 2017
• An embedded mindset in the business in which everyone
seeks constantly to improve performance
• Size, shape and working practices developed to meet the
future needs of the business
Strategic themes
We focus on three strategic themes:
Safe, Secure Site
Stewardship
Demonstrable
Progress
Return on
Investment
The safe and secure stewardship
of the Sellafield site is our overriding
priority. It covers everything from
the safety of our employees and
care for the environment through to
the secure management of nuclear
materials, and it underpins every
decision we make.
Sellafield is home to the oldest
nuclear facilities in the UK and
we are focusing our efforts on
safely accelerating the clean-up
of our legacy facilities. We will
also demonstrate our progress
through the timely completion of
both the Magnox and the Thorp
reprocessing programmes.
Presently the NDA invests more
than £2 billion of its budget to
fund work at Sellafield every
year. We will ensure that we
demonstrate value for money
through the delivery of our
mission and will best position the
site and its people for the future.
Corporate Strategy 2017 11
In pursuit of our mission
Our fundamental purpose is
to keep Sellafield safe and
secure, cleaning-up the site to
a defined end state. In order
to deliver this mission, and in
preparation for the end of our
reprocessing mission, we will
become an agile organisation
that can deploy our resources
flexibly, allowing us to take
advantage of opportunities and
respond to challenges.
Our work at Sellafield is important
both nationally and internationally.
We will deliver our mission whilst
being constantly aware of and
responsive to the environment in
which we operate.
12 Corporate Strategy 2017
In pursuit of our mission at Sellafield
we will develop a high-performing
decommissioning business that
can adapt for the longer term and
respond to changing requirements.
We will innovate, finding new ways of
working and of applying technology
to improve our performance and we
will support our supply chain partners
as they export their expertise to the
nuclear industry and beyond.
Accelerating elements of our
operating plan and exceeding the
expectations of our customer will
allow us to explore opportunities and
choices for managing the nuclear
liabilities and assets. We will achieve
this by building a high-performing
culture that uses the strengths of the
Sellafield team; our employees and
our suppliers.
Where acceptable, we will
pursue additional activities if they
complement the delivery of our core
mission. These opportunities will be
identified, discussed and agreed in
collaboration with the NDA.
We will also continue to be an anchor
organisation in our communities,
providing employment, undertaking
pioneering scientific research
innovating, developing skills and
encouraging investment. We do not
just operate next to communities, we
are part of them. Our employees are
also school governors, magistrates
and emergency response volunteers.
Our communities have been home to
the nuclear industry for generations.
As a publicly funded organisation
that currently spends approximately
£2 billion every year, we will continue
£2 billion
PER ANNUM PUBLICLY-FUNDED
ORGANISATION
to play our part in promoting and
leveraging social impact, economic
resilience, growth and diversification.
As an organisation we are a
cornerstone of the country’s energy
policy, providing:
• Confidence in the next generation
of nuclear power generation
that can support a low carbon
economy. Nuclear power is not a
credible long term solution without
integrated waste management and
final disposal solutions.
• Support to the existing UK civil
reactor fleet.
• An exemplar for complex
brownfield remediation.
• A more economic nuclear industry
by reducing overall lifetime cleanup costs, including asset and
materials management, design
development and project delivery.
• A base load of nuclear skills
and capability, including nuclear
construction, which forms the
basis for education and skills
retention.
• A regional hub for an industry
sector that can pull on hubs from
other industries such as robotics
and autonomous systems in
hazardous environments.
• Supply chain development via
varied and novel demand for
services over many years.
We will build an
agile organisation
that enables
decision-making
and deployment of
resources flexibly,
to take advantage
of opportunities
and respond
to challenges.
Corporate Strategy 2017 13
What does the customer
view as value?
To meet our current delivery
commitments, and to optimise
our performance, we will focus
our activities on delivering
customer value.
Our strategic requirements are
specified by the NDA, and we
meet them through a number of
tasks, programmes and portfolios.
In addition, we will configure our
business to maximise value, which is
defined by the NDA, regulators and
key stakeholders.
Value is about cost efficiency and / or
schedule effectiveness though the
drivers differ across our activities. For
example, in some areas we create
value by finding the most cost-
effective solutions. In other areas,
value is schedule-driven and we will
accept higher costs in the short-term
in order to reduce hazards sooner.
We will move from being a processled organisation to one with an
unwavering focus on value. To do
this we will work in a number of
value streams.
These value streams have been
identified to align to the current
business context. As the business
changes, so too will we consider
how we define value, and the value
streams may change.
We will move from
being a processled organisation
to one with an
unwavering focus
on value.
The current value streams are
described below.
Current value stream drivers
Value stream
RETRIEVALS
Driver
Effectiveness
Because of the hazards associated with these
projects, we need to work effectively so that
we conclude retrievals as quickly as possible.
Therefore the primary driver here is schedule,
though we will do this while working as costefficiently as possible.
REMEDIATION
Effectiveness and Efficiency
We deliver value in this area by reducing the
time it takes to progress remediation and
support retrievals through waste treatment plant
operation, as well as by reducing lifetime costs.
SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT
Efficiency
We will deliver this programme of work as
cost-efficiently as possible.
SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIALS
14 Corporate Strategy 2017
Effectiveness and Efficiency
In the short-term we must make sure that
appropriate options are available to support
effectiveness. Once these options are available
and established, we will focus on delivering the
programme as cost-efficiently as possible.
Corporate
strategy
Managing the legacy
Making the most of the assets
Sellafield site
Sellafield
Seascale
Cumbria CA20 1PG
Corporate Strategy
Strategy Management Framework
www.sellafieldsites.com
Enterprise
Wide
Retrievals
Remediation
Spent Fuel
Management
Special Nuclear
Materials
This Strategy provides the direction of travel, which in turn informs the
Corporate and Transformation plans.
Supporting this Strategy is a framework of documents that we need to manage
our business as a single enterprise. The framework provides guidance on
how Sellafield Ltd will carry out the requirements of the NDA Specification for
Sellafield, using a common set of themes for clarity. This provides a clear and
consistent basis for decision-making, applicable to all levels of the organisation.
The framework will be regularly updated to reflect changes in business
context, so supporting increased corporate agility.
Integrated Waste
Management
• Solid
• Liquid
• Gaseous
Critical Enablers
• People
• Information
Communication
Technology
• Land
• Supply Chain
• Innovation
• Knowledge
Management
• Environmental
Compliance
• Infrastructure
Corporate Strategy 2017 15
How we lead change
By becoming a high-performing
organisation and creating the
conditions for success, and
through adapting and building
on previous successes, we
will close out existing missions
while providing value for money
and adopting fit-for-purpose
approaches.
We will be receptive to change
and adapt accordingly. Retraining
and reskilling our workforce and
reinvesting them to deliver in other
areas will be essential to managing
transitions and creating organisational
agility. Responding to change will be
our business as usual; repurposing
redundant facilities and reskilling our
workforce will be part of what we do.
work. We will be able to anticipate,
plan and respond to external
influences, be more flexible and
agile and be comfortable accepting
change and uncertainty as the
norm. We will always look for better
ways of working to accelerate our
programmes to reduce the hazards
and risks resulting from legacy
operations.
We will work innovatively to deliver
best value. We will deliver the
requirements of Government policy
as quickly and cost-effectively
as possible.
We will build an agile organisation
that enables decision-making and
deployment of resources flexibly,
to take advantage of opportunities
and respond to challenges. We will
work as an ‘extended enterprise’
(including our supply chain) with a
culture that develops innovation and
customisation – a sum greater than
its parts.
We will make informed choices
supported by an accurate and
consistent single data source – ‘one
source of reality’. We will value our
core business and skills and trust the
people with those skills to make the
appropriate empowered decisions.
We will make procurement decisions
accordingly. We will adopt a fit-forpurpose approach that will permeate
our procurement of goods and
services, our use of technology and
our processes and systems.
We will strive for effectiveness and
efficiency in everything we do to give
our stakeholders confidence that
we are prioritising appropriately and
reducing the hazards on the site as
soon as possible. We will accelerate
progress and reduce our cost base.
16 Corporate Strategy 2017
Our processes and systems will act
as enablers to delivering value-adding
We will strive for
effectiveness and
efficiency in everything
we do to give our
stakeholders confidence
that we are prioritising
appropriately and
reducing the hazards
on the site as soon
as possible. We will
accelerate progress and
reduce our cost base.
We will work with our supply chain
partners to encourage and harness
innovation, the development of new
technology and the customisation of
existing technology. We will create
a mutually-beneficial operating
environment.
In pursuit of effectiveness and
efficiency, we will encourage
innovation, not only in relation to
technology but also relating to how
we conduct many of our activities.
As the mission changes, the
organisational context will also
change and we will ensure that the
drivers remain current and reflect the
changing context.
We will adopt a portfolio approach
to managing our business which will
support risk-based decision-making
and resource-allocation (people,
facilities, land etc.).
Corporate Strategy 2017 17
Future options
Within the next 10 years,
we will have overcome the
most significant hazards in
three of the four high hazard
facilities at Sellafield and
will be well advanced in
removing the hazard from
the remaining facility.
The extent of the decommissioning
challenge is still significant but once
the highest hazard and risk reduction
activities are completed then there
will be more choice and a greater
degree of freedom in how and when
we progress specific activities. The
Government will then be able to
make decisions about investment
in a different context, and potential
funding choices will be wide-ranging.
We want to make it easy to choose
the future that will maintain good
18 Corporate Strategy 2017
levels of employment, investment in
skills, and opportunities for future
generations.
As always our first priority is safety,
and our focus on mission delivery
is unrelenting. Beyond these,
Sellafield will become a showcase
for pioneering nuclear solutions. The
legacy of historic activities on the
site has created an unprecedented
challenge that will be resolved
through world-class solutions. There
is a huge international market where
this hard-won expertise can be
used, creating opportunities for our
supply chain. This will help make
our communities more resilient, and
secure the longer-term future of our
nuclear capability. It will support a
positive and sustainable impact on
the UK and regional economies by
attracting inward investment and
stimulating growth.
Managing the legacy
Making the most of the assets
Corporate Strategy 2017 19
Sellafield site
Sellafield, Seascale
Cumbria CA20 1PG
www.sellafieldsites.com
Version 1.0 – 04/17